


Nosferatu

by SapphoIsBurning



Category: Dracula - Bram Stoker
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Post-Canon, Trauma, Trick or Treat: Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 10:10:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12505016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SapphoIsBurning/pseuds/SapphoIsBurning
Summary: In 1922, a peculiar vampire movie premieres in Europe, and Mina Harker asks her husband if he would like to go see it.





	Nosferatu

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WendiEvergreen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WendiEvergreen/gifts).



Winter, 1922

"I want to go see it," Mina says.

"What, that new Irish play?" her husband responds.

"No. The movie," Mina insists. "The movie about the vampire."

"You can't possibly," says Jonathan. The country solicitor adjusts his spectacles. The droning of the radio announcer giving the news of the day goes on.

"They're talking about us," she says. "I hear them at church, at the market. They never forget."

"It was a long time ago and people have made up all kinds of stories since then," Jonathan says. "They'll make up stories about what happened until we're all in the ground and beyond."

"Nosferatu," Mina spits. "I wish I had never written down any of it."

"You really wish you hadn't kept a diary or sent a letter during the hardest period of your life?" Jonathan asks.

Mina sighs and gets up from her chair, putting her knitting down on a worn, orange footstool. Her felted slippers pad quietly across the kitchen floor. Was it the hardest period in her life? She thinks about the war and Jonathan being gone, deployed to Mesopotamia, a blessing and a curse. She thinks about the dead stare in her son's eyes. The Spanish Flu. And vampires. Would she rather have another war or another vampire? Another vampire, she thinks. She puts the kettle on.

The radio program comes to an end and music swells. Mina watches the kettle. Maybe this time it won't boil. Maybe this time the rules of the universe will bend again. They haven't for a long time but it isn't something you ever forget.

Something moves in the corner of her eye and Mina jumps, dropping a teacup to the floor. It shatters.

"Oh, Mina," Jonathan says.

"Oh," she says. "Oh." She laughs dryly. "Look what I've done."

"I'll get the dustpan," Jonathan says gently. And he does, while she keeps watching the kettle. He sweeps the pieces up and gently dumps them into the trash.

"We could use new china," Mina says flatly.

They stare at the kettle. It starts to boil and they both jump, then laugh.

"Why do you want to go see it?" Jonathan says.

"Because it's rubbish," Mina says. She opens a canister and looks into it. “Drat, we’re out.”

Jonathan takes the kettle off the heat, turning off the stove, and stills Mina's hands. "My love."

She takes a shaky breath. "It's rubbish and I want to laugh. I want to laugh at it all. All the papers say it's so frightening but it can't possibly be, it just can't. It's a movie, for Christ's sake, and thank Christ."

"A movie based on our letters, published by that dreadful man." He pulls Mina into his arms and kisses her on the top of her head.

"I wish it were a moving picture," Mina said. "A fantasy."

She smells of lavender and Jonathan sees the faint streaks of gray she's had in her hair for twenty years have grown brighter, silver in the lamplight of the kitchen.

"Having each other after all we've been through is more precious to me than any fantasy," Jonathan says.

Mina tries to speak but her voice breaks and she sobs into Jonathan's waistcoat. He dabs at her eyes with a handkerchief.

"I can't promise I won't be frightened," he says. "But maybe a trip to the movies would do the both of us some good."

Mina nods and sniffles.

***

The movie, Nosferatu, is bleak and frightening. Max Schreck is made up hideously. And Jonathan and Mina walk out of the theater hand in hand.

"Our ending is much better, I think," Mina says.

"Quite," Jonathan says. "But for rubbish, it was rather compelling."

"I'll stick to radio," Mina sighs, and smiles. Her husband pulls her closer. It is good to be alive.

 


End file.
